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Mississippi KC-130T Plane Crash Deadliest in a Decade

Fifteen Marines and a Navy
corpsman are dead following a Mississippi KC-130T plane crash that occurred in
the northern part of the state during a transportation flight. Some of the
military service members on board have been identified publicly by friends and
families, but the military has yet to release a full list of names. It is
believed to be the worst Marine plane crash since 2005.

Service Members Were on Their Way
to California Naval Facility when Mississippi KC-130T Plane Crash Occurred

The Mississippi KC-130T plane
crash occurred on Monday, July 10, 2017, as the 16 military service members
were being transported to Naval Air Facility El Centro in California. They had
departed that morning from
a Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina. Six of the Marines and the
sole sailor on board were ultimately going to be taken to the Marine Corps Air
Station in Yuma, Arizona, for "routine small unit pre-deployment
training," according to a statement from the Marine Corps.

Calls reporting the military
plane crash came in at about 4:00 p.m. and cited the aircraft as being in
Leflore County, Mississippi, approximately 85 miles north of the state's
capital, Jackson. The Marine Forces Reserve said in a statement that the plane
had disappeared from air traffic control radar somewhere over Mississippi, but
did not further detail the last point of communication.

Witnesses Heard Explosions and
Saw Plane Spiraling Toward Ground

It was the noise from the
Mississippi KC-130T plane crash that first drew the attention of nearby
witnesses. Will Nobile, whose office is not far from the site of the plane
crash, said the noise was enough to inspire him to walk outside to see what was
happening.

Names and reason behind the accident are not yet available. RIP to the Marines on board.... https://t.co/nbn4CIW6V9

"It sounded like a big
thunderstorm," Nobile
said in an interview with Fox29.com. "Not one big explosion, but a couple of
second-long explosions." Once he was outside, Nobile says that he saw both
a cloudless sky and a "gray streak" that ended in a cluster of trees.
Soon after, black smoke began to rise to the sky from the same spot.

Noise was also what caught the
attention of Andy Jones, who was at work on his family's catfish farm near the
Mississippi KC-130T plane crash site when it happened. Jones heard a boom
that drew his attention upward to the sky and then saw a plane spiraling
downward in the direction of a nearby soybean field. A trail of white smoke was
following the plane, which disappeared into the trees with another explosive
noise.

"At first it looked like an
acrobatic plane, like a stunt plane, blowing the smoke out the back,"
Jones said when speaking with CNN. "Then all of a sudden you realized that
the smoke was coming off one of the sides of the wing."

Both Jones and Nobile drove over
to the crash site, but found there was little they could do to help. Raging
fires kept them at a distance, and it was clear that the plane had been very
nearly crushed upon impact.

"Beans are about
waist-high," Jones continued in his interview with Fox29.com, referring to
the soybean field where the crash happened. "And there wasn't much
sticking out above the beans."

Another
witness standing with Jones and Nobile called authorities to notify them that
he had discovered bodies of the deceased over a mile away and across the
highway. As the witnesses waited for emergency personnel by the Mississippi
KC-130T plane crash site, Nobile says they noticed an open parachute
falling from above, but that, "It didn’t look like anybody was in
it." A second empty and deployed parachute was later found at a fish pond
not far away.

Weapons
and small arms ammunitions were on board the aircraft at the time of the
Mississippi KC-130T plane crash, and Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks
said that firefighters were kept away from the smoldering wreckage by several
"high-intensity explosions" that were possibly caused by the cargo.
Thousands of gallons of foam were used in an attempt to get the fire under
control.

Two large impact areas left by
the plane crash indicate that something went awry while the plane was at
cruising altitude, according toMarines
Brig. Gen. Bradley James.

The recovery phase of the
investigation is underway and the military is being assisted in the
investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and by other state and local agencies. The
National Transportation Safety Board will not be involved in the investigation
because of the plane’s military status.

Names of Deceased Not Yet
Released

The military will not release the
names of the Mississippi KC-130T plane crash victims until at least 24 hours
after all the victim's families have been contacted, but already some of the
deceased have been identified through news and social media by their families
and friends.

Forty-six-year-old Gunnery
Sergeant Brendan Johnson, 20-year-old Dan Baldassare, 31-year-old Julian
Kevianne and Staff Sgt. Joshua Snowden have all been identified as victims of
the crash by their families. Johnson was planning to retire next year and
Snowden would have celebrated his birthday in just weeks.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant took
to Twitter to express his condolences to the families, and he was joined by
politicians across the country, including the President, who commented on the
site “Marine Plane crash in Mississippi is heartbreaking. Melania and I send
our deepest condolences to all!”

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